The so-called Charismatic Movement began in April of 1960 - 50 years ago. It was then that Episcopal priest, Father Dennis Bennett, told his Van Nuys, California congregation that he had received the fullness or "baptism" of the Holy Spirit and was now speaking in tongues. How could he have known that, before long, literally millions of others would share the same testimony? Taken together, the charismatic, neo-charismatic and classical Pentecostal movements represent an unprecedented spiritual avalanche that has picked up a very wide variety of personalities, sub-movements and influences as it has powered its way down the mountain of history.
The list of charismatic and neo-charismatic persons of influence includes: Oral Roberts, Jack Hayford, Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth Copeland, Earl Paulk, Paul and Jan Crouch, Mike Bickle, Jim and Tammy Bakker, Pat Robertson, Benny Hinn, John Wimber, Bob Mumford, Pat Boone, Derek Prince, Bill Johnson, Kathryn Kuhlman, Larry Christenson, Ralph Wilkerson, Michael Harper, David Watson, T.D. Jakes, David Wilkenson, Father Eusebius Stephanou, Leon Joseph Cardinal Suenens, Father Rick Thomas, Wayne Grudem, Mario Murillo, Paul Cain, David DuPlessis, J. Rodman Williams, Demos Shakarian, Todd Bently, Ruth Carter Stapleton, Ted Haggard, C. Peter Wagner, Lonnie Frisbee, and Kevin Ranaghan -- among many, many others.
Fifty years hence, a number of those who qualify to be on the list of charismatic influences have either passed away, fallen away, or watched their impact dim. I've even started to see the term "post-charismatic" get thrown around -- and perhaps that is not unreasonable, at least in the Western World. Pentecostal and Charismatic churches, leaders and movements are still much stronger outside Europe and the U.S. So, one wonders what is next. It seems to me that, after fighting so hard to win a place of acceptance at the evangelical table, the charismatics and neo-charismatics (including so-called "Third Wave" movements) are at a crossroads. Do they bet the farm on the edgier and more controversial personalities, sub-movements and spiritual distinctions of their movement? Or, do they dial back and find new alignments with other evangelicals (excluding, for a moment, the much smaller contingencies of Roman Catholic and Orthodox charismatics)?
Today's newer and smaller movements such as the new Reformed, "Emergent" and Simple Church tribes have their charismatics, but these hybrid associations feel more like the backwash between waves more than the waves themselves.
The fifty years that followed Father Bennett's infamous announcement have been powerful, interesting, puzzling, disconcerting, inspiring, confounding, disappointing and thrilling on both a local and global level. But influential new, younger leaders are not exactly waiting in the wings as the charismatics and neo-charismatics wind up Act Three of their show. What next? An encore? A falling curtain? Or, to borrow a phrase from Monty Python, "something completely different"?
6 comments:
Dad,
I'd love to see some more commentary from you about the charismatic movement. Maybe a post about positives and negatives from an insider's perspective, and maybe one that actually does predict what's next. That would be great.
Andrew
there has been quite a bit of blogosphere back-and-forth conversation down this trail...kind of Vineyard-centric thus far, but i've tried to link to the basic outline of the conversation so far, check it out:
http://verveandverse.blogspot.com/2010/02/deeper-vineyard-discussions-continue.html
I'm writing a history of the charisnmatic renewal movement in Southern Africa (see Charismatic Renewal: Khanya), and those are some of the questions I've been asking. Here it flourished in the 1970s and 1980s (though it began earlier, around 1944, in Zululand), but since around 1980 it's been mostly downhill, and one of the question's we're trying to answer is where it went to. Did the "living water" simply run out into the sand, or evaporate in the heat, or what?
Two possible factors: (1) 1980 was the year Ronald Reagan was elected, and saw the rise of the religious right and a good deal of the charismatic renewal got diverted into that. (2) Part of it also got sucked into the Neopentecostal megachurch movement which some have been emerging from -- indeed the emerging church movement seems, at least in part, to be a reaction against the megachurch movement.
Steven - I'll check out the links you suggested. thanks! Steve: first of all - nice beard!
Second, "where it went" is a great question. According to Peter Jenkins "The Next Christendom" and others, it "went" to the Global South where it is still in high gear. I assume you are talking about "where it went" after the wave rolled through the West for a decade or two.
I will be interested to hear more of what you discern to be a thoughtful answer to that question. Thanks for posting!
Bill,
I meant "where it went" in Southern Africa. And yes, please keep up the "Boon and Bust" series, I'm enjoying it.
Your son said you were involved in the Jesus movement, and I'd like to contact you by e-mail and run some things by you, and possibly also discussion them in the Christianity and society forum if you are interested.
Look forward to hearing from you, Steve. Bill@VCMN.org should work.
Post a Comment